Yankee Fighter: The Story Of An American In The Free French Foreign Legion


John F. Hasey - 1942
    Hasey was the first American citizen to shed his blood to free France from the oppression of the Nazi Regime. For his actions he became the first American to receive France’s highest World War II honor and become a Companion of the Ordre de la Libération. But why was Hasey fighting for France and why was he spilling his blood for the cause of the French people? John F. Hasey’s remarkable memoir Yankee Figher is a brilliant account of his life in Europe in the late 1930s and through the beginning of the Second World War. Yet, Hasey’s first taste of conflict was not during that terrible global war, as in 1939 he joined the Iroquois Ambulance Corps, with other young Americans, to assist the Finns during the Russo-Finnish War. When Hitler’s forces launched their attacks upon Western Europe Hasey immediately signed up with De Gaulle’s Free French Forces and headed to the Middle East to fight for France. The value of his contribution to France’s war effort can be demonstrated in these comments from his citations: “He has the qualities of a man, of a soldier, and of a leader. He has won a place in the hearts of his comrades. Loved and respected by them, as well as by his leaders, Lieutenant John Hasey is the perfect type of foreigner, for whom the love of France is not vain words.” “In the Battle of the Enghiahat … his Captain and First Lieutenant being wounded, he remained the only officer valid. His absolute indifference to danger inspired and galvanized his men.” “During the siege of Massawa, he led his platoon with magnificent bravery in an assault upon enemy positions, which he captured along with a large number of prisoners.” This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the fascinating story of one man’s fight to preserve freedom in the early years of the Second World War and the much less well known Russo-Finnish War. “A young American reports on his part, as ambulance man and then as a fighter for de Gaulle, in the campaigns of Finland, Ethiopia and Syria. An unpretentious yet revealing book.” Foreign Affairs After the events of Yankee Fighter: The Story of an American in the Free French Foreign Legion John F. Hasey worked as a liaison between de Gaulle and Eisenhower. In August 1943, he became an aide-de-camp on the staff of General Marie Pierre Koenig, and remained with Koenig during his term as military Governor of Paris, August 1944. After the war he worked for the CIA and passed away in 2005. Joseph F. Dinneen was co-author of the book and worked as a journalist for the Boston Globe, he passed away in 1964. Yankee Fighter: The Story of an American in the Free French Foreign Legion was first published in 1942.

War Story


Jim Morris - 1979
    Col. Robert K. Brown, Editor and Publisher, Soldier of Fortune“Morris captures the historical accuracy of Special Operations in the language learned from firsthand experience.”–Lt. Col. Chuck Allen, Commander, Project Delta“War Story is the lore of Special Forces in Vietnam told in the tradition of Woody Guthrie.”–Al Santoli, author of Everything We Had“Jim Morris is a highly decorated Green Beret combat veteran, with a unique talent for making his readers feel a part of his gripping, action-packed personal experiences. Morris commands your attention as a reader with the same authority and ability with which he commanded troops in combat.”–J.C. Pollock, author of Mission M.I.A.Jim Morris was an educated young man who had always wanted to be a soldier. In 1963, he found the perfect war..."The war was like a great puzzle, great to think about, great to plan, great to do. It was so incredibly peaceful out there in the jungle."As an advisor to a Montagnard strike force, Morris and his guerrillas outfought and outmaneuvered the Viet Cong in his sector. To a Green Beret like Jim Morris, the “Yards” were brothers—so fiercely insular, they would serve no outsider and made the Berets who fought with them honorary members of the tribe…so valiant, they would follow the right man into a firestorm…But while he loved the ambushes, the firefights and the Montagnards, he could see a tragedy unfolding in Vietnam."As I jumped I heard a crack and felt a thud in my right shoulder. I squeezed the trigger on my M-16. The bolt went ka-schlugg and that was that, baby. Jammed again."In the most widely admired Special Forces memoir to come out of the Vietnam War, Jim Morris tells his story: of the early days and the Tet Offensive in '68, of the slaughters and the beauty, of the violence, the courage, the loyalty and the loss..."The war was my life and I identified with it totally. To end it was to end me, and that I would not do..."About the AuthorJim Morris served three tours with Special Forces (The Green Berets) in Vietnam. The second and third were cut short by serious wounds. He retired from his wounds as a major. He has maintained his interest in the mountain peoples of Vietnam with whom he fought, and has been, for many years, a civil rights activist on their behalf. His Vietnam memoir War Story won the first Bernal Diaz Award for military nonfiction. Morris is author of the story from which the film Operation Dumbo Drop was made, and has produced numerous documentary television episodes about the Vietnam War. He is author of three books of nonfiction and four novels.

One Trip Too Many - A Pilot's Memoirs of 38 Months in Combat Over Laos and Vietnam


Wayne A. Warner - 2012
    It is primarily a story to share with family and friends about my personal involvement in the conflict and the turbulent decade of the 60s and does not attempt to question the politics of the era. It begins with a brief description of my quest to gain admittance to the United States Air Force Academy, my four years at the Academy, and the subsequent year of pilot training. I flew three different types of aircraft in combat and the book provides insight into the training that took place for the C-130 Hercules, the F-105 Thunderchief, and the A-1 Skyraider. Each of the three tours in combat over Laos and Vietnam is described with emphasis on the more memorable flights including a bailout in the A-1 and the final crash on takeoff that ended my active duty Air Force career. My time in various hospitals is described at the end of the book and the epilogue tells briefly of my life after retirement from the United States Air Force. The book has been described as a combination of Band of Brothers, Top Gun, and Forrest Gump.

Shadow Warrior


David Everett - 2008
    Here, for the first time, is his remarkable story.A far-from-strapping lad from Tasmania, Dave proved everybody wrong by passing the gruelling selection course to join the SAS. Unsatisfied by the Regiment, he left to take up the cause of the oppressed Karen people of Burma, becoming a seasoned jungle-fighter in the process.On his return to Australia, Dave became every government’s nightmare: a highly skilled special-forces soldier on a crime spree. On a mission to raise funds for the Karen, he kidnapped people from their homes, robbed movie theatres and plotted some of the most audacious crimes ever conceived in Australia. At the height of his infamy every police officer in the country was on the lookout for him, while the tabloid press fuelled the public’s fear of a trained killer gone crazy.Dave was blown-up, shot at, starved, bashed, interrogated, tortured and locked in solitary confinement, but nothing diminished his wild streak. While serving his jail sentence, he had time to reflect. In Shadow Warrior, he tells his story with unflinching honesty and larrikin wit.

SEAL Warrior- Vietnam: Three Tours Of Duty 1968--1972


Thomas H. Keith - 2009
    Navy SEALs (SEa, Air, Land commandos) never filed for a Purple Heart unless they were severely wounded. Thomas H. Keith, Master Chief, SEAL Team 2, is living proof. He carries a piece of shrapnel behind one lung, a reminder of the day he called in 40 mm mortar fire on the enemy that was trying to catch up to his crew as the crew hauled ass out of the bush. Not only did he never report it, it was never removed---it just wasn’t serious enough.SEAL Warrior is the vivid, gritty, transporting memoir of a man destined for combat, a third-generation soldier for whom serving his country was not only an honor, it was tradition. While his grandfathers fought in France, and his father’s position as a U.S. Navy Chief took him all around the world, Tom Keith fought his first war in the jungles of Vietnam.Fighting a guerilla war on foreign soil for the first time in American history, the SEALS found that there were no front lines; the enemy was an integral part of the entire society. This atypical form of warfare demanded that new tactics, new strategic applications of force, and a new understanding of a complex social and cultural enmity be found.SEAL Warrior goes beyond the horror and bravado of battle to offer a deeper insight into the ways in which the SEALs fought, learned, reacted, and expanded their understanding of guerilla warfare during the Vietnam War. It’s also a personal, riveting account of how one young American survived, and, over time, grew to trust and revere many of those who once had been his enemy.With America again deeply involved in guerilla warfare, there is no better time to honor the unique abilities, understanding, and courage of these warriors who sacrificed it all to fight for nothing less than peace.

Going Downtown: The War Against Hanoi and Washington


Jack Broughton - 1987
    Going Downtown: The War Against Hanoi and Washington

Of No Value: A Vietnam War Era Memoir


Derrick Wolf - 2017
     When Derrick Wolf and Kent Campbell were wounded in battle, they thought the war was over for them. And while the war may have been done with them, the army was not. Of No Value is an unvarnished depiction of the absurdity of war and army life in the early 1970s. From the pitiful treatment received at the army's hospitals to the completion of their service, they were scorned and insulted by the military. The contempt continued at home, this time at the hands of their fellow Americans, who spat and called them "baby killers." Of No Value is a memoir spanning the experiences of two soldiers from the time of their combat injuries to their discharge. It not only captures the ludicrous machinations of the military but also depicts the colorful counterculture life of the United States in the early 70s. Both Wolf and Campbell are Bronze Star and Purple Heart recipients. Wolf is also the author of Boys for Men, a best-selling Vietnam memoir.

Vietnam: There & Back: A Combat Medic's Chronicle


Jim "Doc" Purtell - 2018
    Army. He did so at a time when the country was pro-Vietnam and serving seemed an honorable thing to do. Little did he know that the tide would turn a mere six months later as drastically as it did. VIETNAM: THERE AND BACK is a candid account of the time when he and several other combat vets found themselves conducting operations in the jungles of Vietnam during and after the Tet Offensive. Purtell describes in gritty detail what it was like to live and fight with an infantry company only to return to anti-Vietnam sentiment so strong that he and his fellow veterans felt nobody cared about them or the sacrifices they made.

Valor in Vietnam: Chronicles of Honor, Courage, and Sacrifice: 1963-1977


Allen B. Clark - 2012
    The Vietnam War lives on famously and infamously dependent on political points of view, but those who have “been there, done that” have a highly personalized window on their time of that history. Valor in Vietnam focuses on nineteen stories of Vietnam, stories of celebrated characters in the veteran community, compelling war narratives, vignettes of battles, and the emotional impact on the combatants. It is replete with leadership lessons as well as valuable insights that are just as applicable today as they were forty years ago.This is an anecdotal history of America’s war in Vietnam composed of firsthand narratives by Vietnam War veterans presented in chronological order. They are intense, emotional, and highly personal stories. Connecting each of them is a brief historical commentary of that period of the war, the geography of the story, and the contemporary strategy written by Lewis Sorley, West Point class of 1956, and author of A Better War and Westmoreland.With a foreword by Lt. Gen. Dave R. Palmer, U.S. Army (Ret.), Valor in Vietnam presents a historical overview of the war through the eyes of participants in each branch of service and throughout the entire course of the war. Simply put, their stories serve to reflect the commitment, honor, and dedication with which America’s veterans performed their service.

Blood Trails: The Combat Diary of a Foot Soldier in Vietnam


Christopher Ronnau - 2006
    But the latter soon proved particularly pointless as the private first class found himself in the thick of two pivotal, fiercely fought Big Red One operations, going head-to-head against crack Viet cong and NVA troops in the notorious Iron Triangle and along the treacherous Cambodian border near Tay Ninh.Patrols, ambushes, plunging down VC tunnels, search and destroy missions–there were many ways to drive the enemy from his own backyard, as Ronnau quickly discovered. Based on the journal Ronnau kept in Vietnam, Blood Trails captures the hellish jungle war in all its stark life-and-death immediacy. This wrenching chronicle is also stirring testimony to the quiet courage of those unsung American heroes, many not yet twenty-one, who had a job to do and did it without complaint–fighting, sacrificing, and dying for their country. Includes sixteen pages of rare and never-before-seen combat photosFrom the Paperback edition.

From Chicago to Vietnam: A Memoir of War


Michael Duffy - 2016
    The perimeter of the massive Saigon Airbase, Tan Son Nhut, was breached, and fighting raged all morning. Both gritty and intimate, From Chicago to Vietnam tells the powerful story of the ensuing epic battle, the Tet Offensive, from the perspective of one brave American soldier, Michael Duffy, whose life, like so many others, would forever be changed.Duffy's war experience begins when he exits a C-130 cargo plane onto the Tan Son Nhut tarmac--a chaotic scene of blasts, explosions, and small arms fire. Sprinting to a waiting helicopter, he is lifted up and over the city, where he gets a bird's-eye view of Saigon under attack. The helicopter lands on a road outside Bien Hoa Base Camp, and Duffy crawls in under enemy fire, tumbling into a fox-hole under cover of two GIs. Later, he meets up with his younger brother, Danny Duffy, in an ammunition convoy driving up Highway 1 to the village of Xuan Loc.After his brutal one-year tour in Vietnam, Duffy returns to Chicago, where he enjoys a Christmas dinner with his family before enrolling as a freshman at Colorado College. Like many vets, his return from the war would be met with curiosity, indifference, and, at times, scorn. This harrowing memoir was thirty years in the making.

Policing Saigon


Loren W. Christensen - 2017
    Christensen's experience as a military policeman (MP) in a city of millions at a time when chaos and fear reigned. As a 23-year-old from a small town in Washington State, the author was plunged into a chaotic city of brawling servicemen, prostitutes, racial violence, enemy rockets, riots, and death. It was a place that would give him a unique opportunity to see up close a different side of the Vietnam War and its effect on the human condition. Nearly 80 stories collectively convey the author’s experiences and his arc—from naive to jaded, angry, confused, anxious, and bone-weary exhausted—that is representative of so many GIs who served in the Vietnam War as well as those veterans of today’s conflicts around the globe. * “A true warrior and a gifted and prolific author, Loren gives the reader a deep and illuminating insight into his experience that changed his life and subsequently led him toward helping others through his writing. Policing Saigon is a powerful book.” Lt. Col. Dave Grossman * Military Policeman Loren Christensen takes the reader on a gritty, moving, and intense ride-a-along in Saigon, Vietnam. K.F., Afghanistan War veteran Table of Contents Introduction PART ONE: THE FIRST FEW DAYS Chap 1: Flying there Chap 2: Door gunners and policing for cigarette butts Chap 3: Welcome to Saigon Chap 4: Python Chap 5: Culture shock Chap 6: Dead men’s gear PART TWO: "ROUTINE DAYS" Chap 7: Day after day Chap 8: EOD Chap 9: Skylight Chap 10: Cobra Chap 11: Bob Hope Chap 12: Papa-san and the ammo truck Chap 13: Dead mama-san Chap 14: Jail window Chap 15: “Karate number one” Chap 16: Sampson Chap 17: 100-P alley Chap 18: 200-P alley Chap 19: The swimming pool Chap 20: “Dance to the Music” Chap 21: Drugs Chap 22: Tracer rounds Chap 23: Puff the magic dragon Chap 24: Almost a coup Chap 25: Vietnam blues Chap 26: Tension Chap 27: A shaky fork Chap 28: Illusions of relief Chap 29: Korean Marines Chap 30: AFVN radio: “Goooooood morning, Vietnaaaaaam” Chap 31: “I’m not a crook” Chap 32: Running Code 3 Chap 33: Fire Chap 34: Riot Chap 35: Power and rank: a deadly mix Chap 36: The vision Chap 37: Screams Chap 38: Meyerkord Hotel Chap 39: Resisting arrest Chap 40: Letters Chap 41: One GI who went home and came right back PART THREE: LOSING IT Chap 42: Silencer Chap 43: Hangman Chap 44: Johnny Walker Black Chap 45: Escaped prisoner Chap 46: The punch Chap 47: Death of the spirit Chap 48: Grenade PART FOUR: PROSTITUTES Chap 49: “Boom-boom number one” Chap 50: Clap Chap 51: Peter PART FIVE: THE INDIGENOUS Chap 52: A fellow martial artist Chap 53: A most excellent shot Chap 54: “Everybody’s talkin’ ‘bout me” Chap 55: China girl Chap 56: Date night Chap 57: The old gravedigger Chap 58: Altered states: the Buddhist temple Chap 59: Dog sex and an alligator baby PART SIX: STREET CHILDREN Chap 60: A Tu Do paperboy Chap 61: Cemetery k

Huey: The Story of a Helicopter Assault Pilot in Vietnam


Jay Groen - 1984
    Army's UH-1H "Huey" Iroquois helicopter. He experiences screaming descents into hot landing zones to place military assault troops and rescue wounded soldiers. He has the clarity of mind to survive seven days of horror in a Vietnamese jungle swamp while the psychology of a fellow soldier is severely tested. He's got the guts to buck military orders and battle his own brass to pursue an investigation when a botched operation spells disaster for the men under him. Based on the authors' personal experiences in the Vietnam War, Huey is an authentic, action-filled book of historical fiction. Originally published 30 years ago, this moving novel became a New York Timesbestseller within days of publishing. Now it's available again on Kindle.

A Tiger Among Us: A Story of Valor in Vietnam's A Shau Valley


Bennie Adkins - 2018
    Cunning. Ferocious. Fearless. The Indochinese tiger is just one of the formidable predators roaming Vietnam's jungle. In 1966 a small band of US Special Forces soldiers--most especially Bennie Adkins--spent four grueling days facing down the "tiger" among them.While the rain and mist of an early March moved over the valley, then-Sergeant First Class Bennie Adkins and sixteen other Green Berets found themselves holed up in an undermanned and unfortified position at Camp A Shau, a small training and reconnaissance camp located right next to the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail, North Vietnam's major supply route. And with the rain came the North Vietnamese Army in force.Surrounded 10-to-1, the Green Berets endured constant mortar and rifle fire, direct assaults, treasonous allies, and volatile jungle weather. But there was one among them who battled ferociously, like a tiger, and when they finally evacuated, he carried the wounded to safety. Forty-eight years later, Command Sergeant Major Bennie Adkins's valor was recognized when he received this nation's highest military award, the Medal of Honor.Filled with the sights, smells, and sounds of a raging battle fought in the middle of a tropical forest, A Tiger among Us is a riveting tale of bravery, valor, skill, and resilience.

Pathfinder: First In, Last Out


Richard R. Burns - 2002
    Within just one month, during a holiday called Tet, the Communists would launch the largest single attack of the war--and he would be right in the thick of it. . . .In Vietnam, Richard Burns operated in live-or-die situations, risking his life so that other men could keep theirs. As a Pathfinder--all too often alone in the middle of a hot LZ--he guided in helicopters disembarking troops, directed medevacs to retrieve the wounded, and organized extractions. As well as parachuting into areas and supervising the clearing of landing zones, Pathfinders acted as air-traffic controllers, keeping call signs, frequencies, and aircraft locations in their heads as they orchestrated takeoffs and landings, often under heavy enemy fire.From Bien Hoa to Song Be to the deadly A Shau Valley, Burns recounts the battles that won him the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and numerous other decorations. This is the first and only book by a Pathfinder in Vietnam . . . or anywhere else.From the Paperback edition.